Word: ayatullah
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...last week chose to deal instead of fight, this time accepting a truce with the Shi'ite militia loyal to cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, 30. The U.S. Army's 1st Armored Division agreed to pull back from the holy city of Najaf in a deal pushed by Grand Ayatullah Ali Husaini Sistani, the most respected Shi'ite leader in the country...
Whether the truce can stick is critical for the Administration and the viability of the interim government. The U.S. has desperately tried to accommodate Ayatullah Sistani--the symbol of what senior Bush advisers see as the Shi'ite silent majority, a group they believe is impatient with the occupation but willing to support a sovereign government if it is seen as legitimate. Reducing the violence in the Sunni triangle and the south will, Administration officials hope, buttress their case that it's safe for the U.N. to throw its support behind the new government. A senior Administration official told TIME...
...worshippers thronging the mosque in Kufa last Friday, the U.S. may be underestimating the rebel leader. In fact, the more the U.S. aims its guns at al-Sadr, the more popular he seems to become. According to a recent poll, he is now second in popularity to the Grand Ayatullah Ali Husaini Sistani, the Shi'ites' spiritual leader...
...come to an agreement," says Sheik Faad al-Turfi. "They came here as occupiers. They kill Iraqis, rape our women and steal our riches." With an air of exhaustion, he also dismisses the claims of al-Sadr's Shi'ite critics, like Sheik Bhafer al-Qaisi, a representative of Ayatullah Sistani's who told TIME last week that al-Sadr was purposely trying to provoke an attack on the Shi'ite shrines to trigger a nationwide revolt. "We want to defend the shrines," says al-Turfi, "not destroy them...
...truce with the men he thinks of as terrorists and is now turning security over to local militias. Politically, we have tossed the ball to Lakhdar Brahimi and the U.N. But even Brahimi doesn't have much stroke. The real governing authority in Iraq appears to be the Grand Ayatullah Ali Husaini Sistani, who dictated the al-Sadr solution last week, and in effect vetoed the interim constitution the U.S. proposed and will, no doubt, have final say over Brahimi's new government. The President pretends that none of this is happening. Most Americans sense the President is just pretending...